Process for wood distillation



C. T. CLARK.

PROCESS FOR WOUD DISTILLATION.

APPLICATION man Ausm. 19:1.

1,337,342, Patented Apr. 20, 1920.

8w 1 GT1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES T. CLARK, F .EAY CITY, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR T0 E. I. nu PONT DE NEMOUBS AND COMPANY, OF WILMINGTON. DELAWARE, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

PROCESS FOR WOOD DISTILLATION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 20, 1920.

Application filed August 11, 1917. Serial No. 185,656.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I. CHARLES T. CLARK, of Bay ity, in the county of Bay, and in the State of l\'lichi;:an. have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Processes for Wood Distillation, and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear. and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to a process for use in wood distillation so as to obtain therefrom charcoal and the usual products of destructive distillation of wood.

The object oi my invention is to provide a process by means of which wood may be distilled in a more advantageous manner. More particularly the object of my invention is to provide a wood distillation process in which green wood may be treated without requiring previous drying thereof in the atmosphere, in which the products of the destructive distillation may he obtained much more quickly than hitherto. in which a larger yield is obtained than hitherto, in which a smaller quantity of fuel is needed for heating purposes, in which the cost is decreased due to the small stock of wood required. and in which charcoal of very uni l'orm quality is obtained which is particularly adapted for use in the chemical arts. Further objects oi my invention will appear from the detailed description thereot' contained llereina t'tcr.

While my process may be carried out in many dilferent ways and while many different forms of apparatus may be used in corn nection with my invention I have shown only one type of apparatus in the accomanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of an apparatus made in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same; and

l*i; s. Ii and l are respectively an elevation and a plan view ol one of the wooden blocks such as are treated in accordance with my invention.

In the drawingsl have shown two sets of railway tracks 1 and 2 entering a drying chamber 21 havin; two separate compartments 1 and 5 for receiving the railway tracks 1 and 2 respectively. Partitions 6 and T are provided in the chamber 3 to form the two compartments 4 and 5. Inlet doors 8 and 9 are provided to close the inlet ends of the compartments 4 and 5. A chimney ill is provided at the inlet end to convey away the moisture and gases from the compartments 4 and 5. Each of the compartments 4 and 5 is adapted to receive three charges of wood each of said char es being comprised of four cars, said wood eing cut in the form of short cylinders or plaques 11, substantially three inches long as shown in Fig. 3. Beneath the chamber 3 there is a hot air supply pipe 12 having a plurality of branch pipes 13 one of which is provided for each charge of wood contained in the compartments 4 and Said pipe 12 is con nected at its forward end to a pipe 14; leading from a blower 15 and said blower 15 is connected by a pipe 16 to a stack 17 leading from a furnace 1T provided for heating a retort 18 in which the wood is to be destructively distilled. In the stack 17 there is a damper 18. Furthermore in the side of the pipe 16 there is a damper 20 to control an inlet port for cold air. The blower 15 is driven by a belt 21 from a. shaft 22 which is driven by an engine 23. Said shaft 22 is furthermore connected by a belt 24 to another blower 25 which is adapted to circulate the air in the chamber 3. At the forward end of the chamber 3 there are two doors 26 and 27 through which when open the car loads of wood are adapted to be moved into a connecting chamber 28 leading; to a retort house 2%) through doors 29 and. thence into the retort 18 through doors 29". In the connecting chamber there are side doors 3t) and 31 to give access thereto. ()11 the retort 18 there is provided any suitable outlet pipe 32 and condenser 33. At the forward end of the retort 18 there are outlet doors 34 and 35 and at the same end of the retort house 29 there are outlet doors .36 and 37.

In the operation of my invention blocks of green hard wood such as maple, birch, beech, oak, etc., are obtained by merely cutting thev logs crosswise at intervals of three inches, thus obtaining blocks or plaques of the shape shown in Figs. 3 and 4. These blocks are loaded on cars which are. fed into the. preliminary heat ing' chamber 3 until said chamber contains three charges of four cars each, that is to say one charge for each of the pipes 13. The doors 8, 9, 26 and 27 of said chamber are now closed and heated air together with the products of combo tion from the pipes 13 are supplied beneatl the cars of wood so that said air Film- 

